CCP Military Morale Is Shaken by 2 Former Defense Ministers Suspended Death Sentences: Insiders

Suspended death sentences recently given to two former defense ministers of the Chinese communist regime have sent shockwaves through the ranks of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Now, even mid-level and junior-grade officers fear for their own safety, according to insiders who spoke with The Epoch Times.Li Shangfu and Wei Fenghe, both of whom served as State Councilors and Ministers of National Defense, were recently sentenced to death, with a two-year reprieve, reported by state media Xinhua on May 7. Both were found guilty of multiple offenses, including accepting bribes, while Li was also found guilty of offering bribes.In China, a death sentence with reprieve is usually commuted to life imprisonment if the offender commits no crimes during the period of reprieve.After the two-year reprieve, Li and Wei will spend the rest of their lives in prison without the possibility of further commutation or parole.Both men were once Xi’s confidants. Wei was the first general promoted to full general rank after Xi Jinping became the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader in 2012. Xi held a promotion ceremony exclusively for him. Xi handpicked Li to be the minister of defense after the 20th National Congress of the CCP in 2022.In August 2023, Li was officially announced to have been ousted. One month later, his predecessor Wei was also announced to be under investigation. In June 2024, the criminal charges against them were announced by Xinhua.The day after authorities announced the sentences, the Chinese regime’s military PLA’s Navy, Air Force, Rocket Force, and all major theater commands immediately convened meetings to reiterate the outcome of the court ruling, according to Wu Kun, an insider with close ties to the Chinese military who used a pseudonym for fear of reprisal.“This is a rare instance in recent years of the CCP imposing such a severe sentence upon a high-ranking military official holding ‘deputy-state-level’ status,” Wu told The Epoch Times.Notably, none of the prominent military figures who were previously taken down, including former Central Military Commission Vice Chairmen Guo Boxiong and Xu Caihou, as well as Fang Fenghui, the former chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission, were given the severe penalty of suspended death sentences.Upon learning of Li and Wei’s sentencing, most of the officers remained silent, Wu said. “The troops were all astonished when they heard it. For decades, we haven’t heard of a general at the level of the Central Military Commission being sentenced to a suspended death penalty; they never expected the punishment to be so severe. Now, many people are worried that the purges will continue—specifically, that more arrests will follow.”The latest targets of Xi’s purge were the top general Zhang Youxia, vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, and Liu Zhenli, a member of the Central Military Commission and chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission. The Chinese regime’s ministry of defense announced on Jan. 24 that they were being investigated for serious violations of Party discipline and state laws.The conclusion of the investigation hasn’t been announced, and they still hold their official positions on paper, despite both having disappeared from public view since January. Analysts said that shows the widespread dissatisfaction in the military and resistance to Xi’s purge in the Party.Zhang was the only general in the CCP’s military with actual combat experience, which was during China’s war against Vietnam in 1979.Fear of Further PurgeWu said that in order to “purge the residual toxins” in the military, all military personnel will be required to study internal speeches delivered by the Central Military Commission and editorials published in the PLA Daily about the cases, “as well as to continue dismantling the networks of influence established by Li and Wei and others within the armed forces.”“Those directly implicated in the cases have already been dealt with. The next step will likely involve continuing investigations into related personnel,” he said.Li served for an extended period within the CCP’s equipment system, having previously held the positions of deputy director of the General Armaments Department and director of the Equipment Development Department of the Central Military Commission. He was also convicted for “offering bribes,” which has drawn outside attention to the corruption network of high-ranking officials within the CCP’s equipment system.Zhang Youxia (front), newly elected Vice Chairman of the Central Military Commission of the People’s Republic of China, swears an oath with members of the Central Military Commission (L-R) Zhang Shengmin, Liu Zhenli, He Weidong, Li Shangfu, and Miao Hua, after they were elected during the fourth plenary session of the National People’s Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on March 11, 2023. All of them have been purged by Xi, except Zhang Shengmin. Greg Baker/Pool via ReutersHe Rong, a Chinese legal scholar who used a pseudonym out of fear of reprisal, stated that by charging Li Shangfu with the crime of active bribery, a legal chain of association has effectively been established linking him to his former superiors.“The CCP has always been adept at criminalizing political issues. Since Li Shangfu is implicated in offering bribes, it implies that there must be recipients of those bribes. To date, the authorities have not disclosed the specific amount of funds involved or who were the recipients,” he said.Xi has purged five of the total seven members that comprise the current CCP’s Central Military Commission since the CCP’s 20th National Congress in 2022, with only Zhang Shengmin and himself left. Xi has also purged numerous high-ranking military officials, including the Commanders and Political Commissars of the Navy, Air Force, and Rocket Force, who Xi believes were disloyal to him, creating a power vacuum in the military’s top leadership.Within Beijing’s official circles, Xi has earned a new nickname—“the General-Slayer,” a reference to Xi’s continuous purge of the PLA’s senior officials, according to Yuan Hongbing, a Chinese legal scholar living in exile in Australia who has informants in the CCP’s upper echelons.Xi currently wields absolute power, but he is also isolated without allies because of his rounds of purges, Yuan told The Epoch Times. “His ability to monopolize power relies on an entire network of secret intelligence agencies used to control every official—including those within the military.”As a result, Yuan said, “Although the PLA remains the largest military force in the world today, its command structure has been thoroughly dismantled by Xi Jinping himself. It is a giant with brain paralysis!”Wang Yibo, Luo Ya, and Ning Haizhong contributed to this report.